[ANSTHRLD] need help with Norse documentation
Christie Ward
val_org at hotmail.com
Fri Jul 29 12:59:24 PDT 2005
>Can someone with a copy of Geirr Bassi please help me with documenting the
>name: Brúnn Johannsen?
Alden, you might as well back up and work on the name some more. Anything
with a <-sen> in the patronymic instead of <-son> places it *much* later
than an Old Norse personal name. The two are not a good temporal match.
Forms of the "John" name found in Old Norse (from
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2998):
<Ión> mid-11th c. (pronounced \YONE\, to rhyme with <bone>)
<Ion> 1224
<Ióan> before 1066 (pronounced \YOE-ahn\, with the \OE\ as in <woe>)
These would give you <Iónsson>, <Ionsson>, <Ióansson>.
Note that all of these are very late Viking Age (ca. 800-1100), or
post-Viking Age, if that makes a difference to the submittor. We don't see
Christian-derived names really enter the naming pool in Scandinavia (except
as what appear to be devotional names among priests, nuns, abbots, etc.)
until around 1200 for the most part. Scandinavian naming is really
conservative because the overwhelming custom was to name a baby after a
recently deceased close relative, which tended to recycle old traditional
names.
Another report from the Academy of St. Gabriel
(http://www.s-gabriel.org/2323) covers later period variants more
thoroughly:
Forms of the Latin name <Iohannes> (i.e. <John>) were
used in Norway as early as 1297 [5]. The most common
Norwegian spelling of the name <John> was <Jon>, which
we find as early as 1309. Examples include [2]:
Ascer Jons sonn (1309)
Olafr Jons son (1329)
Olafuer Jons sun (1347)
Gulli Jonsson (1384)
Sigurdher Jons son, Katerina Jons dotter (1422)
Katerina Jons dotter (1454)
The specific spelling <Johan> was less common and came
into use later. We have found examples in the late
15th and 16th centuries, including <Margarette
Johansdotter> 1477, <Barbra Johans dotter> 1547 [3].
Other spellings of the names in period Norwegian
documents include <Ion> (1397), <Joan> (1428), and
<Jehand> (1525) [4].
In Danish documents, the patronymic you want appears
commonly as <Jenss:>, <Jonss:>, and <J{o|}nss:> [8].
The abbreviation <Jenss:> probably stood for <Jensson>
in the 14th and 15th century, <Jenssen> in the 16th.
We found a few examples of <-s{o|}n> in 15th century
documents, <-zen> and <-zenn> in 16th century
documents [9].
If your client wants a late period "John" name, you need a later form of the
personal name to go with it.
I have one runic example of this name, appearing in runes as <brun> in the
Ög21 inscription from Östergötland, Sweden ca. 990-1010. The name itself
probably is derived from a byname meaning "bright, clear; brown". See:
Peterson, Lena. Nordiskt runnamnslexikon. Språk- och folkminnes-institutet.
http://www.sofi.se/SOFIU/runlex/ S.n. <Brúnn>.
Samnordisk runtextdatabas. http://home.swipnet.se/~w-61277/rundata/1.htm
Signum Ög21. (Dating comes from here).
Some good later examples are available in Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn
(SMP) at http://www.dal.lu.se/sofi/smp/pdf/brun.pdf :
Brun Ingeuarssin j Tuffte, [1358]
Brwn, 1377
Bron Akonson, 1383
Brøn i Næsby, 1422
Brøn i Biastom, 1422
Per Brunsson, [1439]
Jon Bronson, 1443
Brwn Benczsson, 1451
Brwn Benctzson, 1452
Brwns Hilgers hustrv, 1458
Brwn Swensson, 1467, 1475
Bryn Swenson, 1482
Brun Suenson, 1489
Brwn Suenson, 1495
Brøn i Kalabodha, 1491
Brwn scriffuere, 1494
Brøndh scriffuare, 1505
Lindorm Brwnsson, 1505, 1520
Lindorm Brwndson, 1507
Lindorm Brwnsson, 1512
Llindorm Brunsson, 1517
Benth Brwnsson, 1509
Bencth Brwnsons, 1515
Benkth Brunsson, 1518
Benct Brwnsson, 1523
Torsten Brwnson, 1512
Torsten Brwnsson, 1517
Torsten Brvnsson, 1528
Torsten Brunszon, [1533]
Tosthen Brunson, 1539
Swen Brwnson, 1526
Checking Diplomatarium Norvegicum (medieval charters from Norway ca. 1050 to
1590, searchable at
http://www.dokpro.uio.no/dipl_norv/diplom_field_eng.html):
Brun gamle (Brun the Old), 1309
Aðalizu gamla Bruns dottor (Aðaliza, daughter of Brun the Old), 1312
Bron Bærnær son, 1330
Brøn Syworsson, 1340
Aasæ Bruns kona (Aasa, Brun's wife), 1351
Brun Struue, 1436
Brwn Strwen, 1438
Iwer Bron son, 1548
Some more examples from Diplomatarium Norvegicum with the word as a byname:
Petrus Brun, 1301
Thorleif brvn, 1418
Gudbrander brun, 1419
Thomes Brwn, 1426
Gerik Brwn, 1484
Hans Bruns, 1514
Lawress Broen, 1523
Laurens Brun, 1523
Lauris Brun, 1523
Jehan Brun, 1525
Jehan Brwn, 1525
Jens Bronn, 1539
If you're still with me at this point, here are some name combinations
matched up with the personal name and byname in appropriate forms for the
same date range:
VIKING AGE (mid-11th c.):
Brúnn Ións son
Brúnn Ióans son
MEDIEVAL:
Brwn Ions son (14th c.)
Brun Jons sonn (14th c.)
Bron Jons sun (14th c.)
Bron Joans son (15th c.)
Brøn Johansson (15th c.)
Brwn Jehands son (16th c.)
Brvn Johans son (16th c.)
Brwn Johanssen (16th c.)
Everything I cited above is available online.
::GUNNVOR::
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